Jupiter Artland spring and summer programme filled with new talent

Edinburgh’s contemporary art park features work from artists including Sara Barker and Tara Donovan

Opening in mid-May, the Jupiter Artland spring and summer programme has become a much-anticipated event on Edinburgh’s calendar of contemporary art events, not least because you know summer has arrived when the place opens. Set in 100 acres of country estate woodland to the west of the city, the family-owned venue contains a number of site-specific permanent sculptural works by artists like Charles Jencks, Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley, as well as a rolling programme of new commissioned pieces.

‘We have one new commission for our collection this year, which is a piece by Sara Barker', says Nicky Wilson, co-owner of Jupiter Artland alongside her husband Robert. ‘We first worked with her during our 2013 Edinburgh Art Festival contemporary commission, which was her first time working outside, and she’s since gone on to work with the Baltic (in Gateshead) and various places in London, so we’re very pleased to have her back.’ The work is in progress just now, and it appears to be a wire frame ‘room’ filled with jewel-like objects.

Elsewhere between May and September, the new programme includes work by Edwin Burdis, who brings operatic performance and outdoor installations entitled ‘The Thickening’, seeing Jupiter Artland as a ‘cure centre’ which uses visual stimulation to heal people, and Mika Rottenberg, whose playful installation ‘Ponytails’ uses hair flicking up and down in a seductive manner, alongside video artworks including one which features a compilation of artists sweating.

The American artist Tara Donovan will present her first UK show here, taking over the ballroom of Bonnington House to show a tsunami-like wave of interconnected plastic cups as well as exhibiting her crystalline ‘Mylar’ piece. There will also be new works from the Glasgow artist Lauren Gault and pieces from another young artist Samara Scott. ‘The whole summer is packed with ladies, really,’ says Wilson. ‘We’re showing strong, powerful works by women which use material in a really gestural way, it’s very exciting. We’ve moved away from big UK artists this year to mine new talent and artists from the States, which will give the programme quite an international flavour.’

Jupiter Artland Edinburgh

Located in the 80-acre grounds of Bonnington House, just outside Edinburgh, Jupiter Artland is an outdoor sculpture park featuring major works specially commissioned from leading sculptors and land artists who have worked on-site to create a strong…